Round-Up of European Throwing Cup Day 1

Solid early season performances by Irish quartet.

Rain and cold were the winners in Leiria today at the European Winter Throwing Cup in Leiria, Portugal. Solid without being spectacular would be the overview of the Irish performances on the day.

Eoin Sheridan opened the day just marginally short of his personal best Discus performance with 51.80m. Eoin was satisfied to start the season positively with this throw and is in good shape to upgrade from this. Adam King returned to the hammer circle after a hamstring niggle since before Christmas with 61.59m. He had two other efforts over 61m. This was short of his 64m form from last year but was a good early season throw and with more throwing volume over the coming weeks, he will move on considerably.

Marco Pons was a two metres down in his personal best from a couple of weeks ago with 51.30m. He would have hoped to produce better on his home track as Leiria is now his training base. Michaela Walsh was disappointed with her 15.15m throw and was not happy with her technique on the day. A throw near her personal best could have put her on the podium, so she will be approaching tomorrows hammer competition with more determination.

Tomorrow sees five athletes in action with our two shot putters Breathnach and John Kelly in action along with Stephen Rice in javelin, Niamh Fogarty in Discus and Walsh again in hammer.